Conversations from WHITE FLAG
by Trivun
Summary: A supplementary piece to my ongoing series Memories, this is a conversation between two ONI agents in the aftermath of the Human-Covenant War, after the enactment on Reach of Operation WHITE FLAG, discussing the legacy of SOOTHSAYER...


**watson78339:** Patching the data through now. Rather an odd request though, don't you think? What does Parangosky want with the Meridian files after all this time?

**marple60286:** Don't ask me, I just do what the old boss says. She tells me to jump, I ask how high, you know?

**watson78339:** Yeah, well, it still seems weird. What the hell did Cassandra find down there anyway? Wasn't that around the time she went off the rails?

**marple60286:** No, no, it was after Meridian that she went rampant. Maybe she did find something...

**watson78339:** What do you mean?

**marple60286:** Can't say much. WHITE FLAG and all. But Sorvad died looking for Forerunner relics on Reach. The hinge heads hit while he was up on Visegrad. And then that bitch Halsey comes waltzing in after his research. Obviously she already knew all about the Forerunners before any of this went down.

**watson78339:** Come on, that's hardly fair, you know they were friends.

**marple60286:** Oh yeah, like she ever had a friend. Anyway, Cassandra was hers. One of the first smart AIs to be used in proper combat. And the rumour is that she found something on Meridian. Something Forerunner. Parangosky's heading over to the Infinity now to check up on the latest stuff and she wanted me to send her data on Meridian. I reckon she's sending the ship to what's left of the place first.

**watson78339:** Isn't it needed at Trevelyan though? And there's Kilo 5 too...

**marple60286:** Doesn't matter. Whatever was on Meridian is more important. And Cassandra's the key.

**watson78339:** So what happened to her? Meridian was what, eight, nine years ago? She'd be out of action by now, surely?

**marple60286:** There's the rub. We don't know.

**watson78339:** What do you mean we don't know? Can't Section Three keep track of their stuff? God help us if the Innies found out...

**marple60286:** Well, it's hardly our fault, is it? She disappeared. We never considered the idea of a rogue AI, and she went rampant about three months after SOOTHSAYER. Straight off the radar. No sign, we used every resource we could spare for half a year and still nothing.

**watson78339:** So what you're saying is, if she is still around, we need to find her?

**marple60286: **Cassandra was built for stealth. If she didn't want to be found in a computer system then there was no way to track her. Parangosky thinks she might have worked her way on board the control systems of some ship going near Meridian. There was a lot she didn't tell us. Way too many holes in the report, even with Section Two's stamp.

**watson78339:** I still don't see what this has to do with Parangosky. Or the Infinity.

**marple60286:** Before she went AWOL, some of the other Section Three AIs noticed Cassandra acting strangely. No-one noticed the rampancy signs until it was too late. I mean, she was six months old, she shouldn't have gone nuts that fast. Seven years is the usual limit. Either way, she started sending weird messages to no-one in particular. Just random words and phrases. Riddles and stuff. Nothing that made any sense.

**watson78339:** Such as?

**marple60286:** Things like "shield and sword". "Array", "Domain", "Ecumene Council", even acting like she was talking to someone else but we could only see one side of the conversation. It was crazy. Three months of that then she just vanished. But there was one word that kept cropping up more than usual. 'Ancillary'.

**watson78339:** What the hell is an 'Ancillary'? And why the capital letters?

**marple60286:** Hey, I'm just telling you what I heard. Apparently the capital letter was important, like it was something big rather than something random. I looked it up when I heard what she'd been saying, there's nothing that makes sense in English. I tried every language I could think of, but nothing made sense in the right context. It wasn't until we found Halsey over on Trevelyan that we worked out what it might be.

**watson78339:** Feel like sharing?

**marple60286:** I really shouldn't be telling you this, but it's not like anyone's going to smack my wrist and say what a naughty girl I'm being. If Big Maggie can throw her career away and pass it on to Osman then I can say this. Apparently Meridian is a massive library.

**watson78339:** You're kidding me.

**marple60286:** No, I'm serious. According to Halsey, the word ancilla is a Forerunner word for artificial intelligence. They took that and used it to name their massive library. The whole planet is a construct, just like the Halos or Onyx.

**watson78339:** And you think that Cassandra made it back there?

**marple60286:** We just don't know. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But the Infinity is headed there en route to Trevelyan. Maybe we'll get a clue about the place, maybe not. Parangosky's already got plans to send Iqbal over there with a team. Maybe we'll find out more about the whole F-U-D mess too.

**watson78339:** And Halsey?

**marple60286:** Halsey doesn't know a thing. And it's staying that way. ONI weren't the only ones Cassandra lied to. But the boss doesn't want to risk Halsey getting away again.

**watson78339:** But wasn't Meridian glassed? Why would the Covies glass Forerunner relics? Nothing about this makes sense.

**marple60286: **They didn't know. Had no clue. Even now, it's been all we can do to keep the Arbiter's guys from taking a look. The longer they're in the dark, the better, no matter what Hood says.

**watson78339: **Yeah, well, don't get me involved any more. I'll grab the intel for you but that's it. The less I have to do with Beta-5 the better. I actually value my head, thank you.

**marple60286: **And a very pretty head it is too ;).

**END TRANSMISSION**


End file.
